Six Nations Betting (Rugby)

Every year there is a coming together of Europe's best Rugby Union sides in the Six Nations Championship. This annual event is a round-robin battle to see who is crowned the Six Nations Champion. But there are other honours up for grabs within the tournament, such as the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown.

So for a few blistering and bruising weeks early in the year, the pinnacle of international rugby in the Northern Hemisphere steps into the spotlight and it is one of the most anticipated sporting tournaments on the calendar.

The tournament usually begins in early February and there first two rounds of action are played on back to back weekends, before a weekend break before the third round of matches. There is another weekend break then before the final two rounds are playing out back to back. Each team plays each of the others once in the competition and the fixtures are reversed from the previous year's competition, so for example, if England played Scotland at home last year, Scotland will host them for the following tournament.

In 2017, for the first time a bonus points system was used, to come into line for what was being used in domestic rugby (0 points for a loss, 2 for a draw, 4 for a win, 1 for scoring four or more tries in match, and 1 for losing by 7 points or fewer). There was an added caveat that if a team pulled off a Grand Slam, ie winning all matches in the Championship, then a bonus three points would be added to make sure that they would finish top of the table.

England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy are the six nations who compete for the Championship. The format of the tournament has grown throughout its history as it was just England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales competing in the original Home Nations. It grew to include France in 1910 for the first time to become the Five Nations and then it switched back to the Home Nations (with France dropping out) between 1932 and 1939. Then France came back for the 1947 edition to revive the Five Nations which stayed around until 2000 when Italy joined to make it the Six Nations.

The Championship Trophy is the main one on offer as the winner of the Six Nations gets their hands on that particular piece of silverware. The Grand Slam is achieved by a side winning of their matches in a given Six Nations season, while the Triple Crown is awarded for a side which wins all three matches against the other Home Nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales) during the course of a tournament.

There are other titles up for grabs within the Six Nations action as well, and these are one-off rivalry matches each season.

England made it back to back Six Nations titles in 2017 as they won four of their five matches, collecting three bonus points along the way. They missed out on the Grand Slam in their final match of the tournament as they lost 13-9 in Dublin against Ireland. That victory saw the Irish claim second place in the table behind England, with France and Scotland both finishing on 14 points with the Irish in what was a tighter than usual race. While it was a success for England, Scotland earned themselves a lot of praise for their performances in the Championship, beating Ireland, Wales and Italy along the way. Their triumph over Wales actually ended a nine-match losing streak that they were on against the Welsh.

England's demolition of Scotland on Week 4 of the tournament saw them match New Zealand's world record of 18 consecutive matches and at the same time set a new Championship record of eleven straight wins. They couldn't go further though as they lost to Ireland in their final game, as mentioned. Italy collected the wooden spoon in the 2017 Six Nations Championship as they failed to collect a single point and no bonus points either. Remarkably there was a record eight joint top try scorers at the tournament. France's Camille Lopez was the top points scorer at the 2018 edition of the Six Nations.

The 2018 Six Nations sees England going as favourites once again to get their hands on the Championship Title. The last team to win it three times in a row was France who claimed the Five Nations title four years running between 1986 and 1989 inclusive. No-one has managed it in the current Six nations format although England and France have both twice won it back to back, while Ireland and Wales have won the Six Nations back to back on one occasion each. So will England, who are favourites create themselves some history?

Their main challengers are expected to be Ireland once again. The Irish had some huge disappointments in losses against Wales and Scotland last year, which will just throw further fuel on the argument that they aren't quite the finished product, but they had their moments in the sun against France and England. This time around Ireland will finish at Twickenham which may keep the balance of power just in England's court. With England having such a powerful success record under Eddie Jones, they are the ones to beat, with Ireland really the only ones who could catch them.

Scotland will be the big underdogs while the Italians will be expected to gather yet another wooden spoon. England are favourite to collect a Grand Slam should one happen and also favourites to get a Triple Crown.

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